> Beocming a doctor now involves first going through a hazing process --
>
>yes, literally, like fraternities, to make you one of the gang -- and
>willing to behave in ways that ensure the continued dominance of a small
>group (relatively) over medical skills and knowledge (to keep their
>bargaining power high) even at the cost of health. Very ugly. And then,
>of course, there is the mess that is medicine which you practice for
>years on end...again constrained by pursuit of profit and maintanence of
>class and other social hierarchies.
>
>
I would caution against characterizing medical training solely in these
terms. I won't deny that there are aspects of the training process that
fit the above. But it's not just a matter of ensuring dominance by a
small group.
Remember, this "small group" is created by the training process. It requires years of study of anatomy and physiology, hands-on experience, and a wide range of other disciplines (say, the design of experiments, the rigors of diagnosis, use of certain technologies, etc.) One could say that this is exclusive only to those who can afford it (or who can line up grants and funding), but the point is that the people who are allowed into this "small group" _must_ pass through this training process.
This is, after all, an area of work in which the risks are fairly high; we are talking about the health and well-being of humans. And it seems to me that a decent and humane society would work to ensure that those who practice medicine do so with a proper standard of training and ethics. (Frankly, a society that'd allow frauds and quacks to operate strikes me as being criminally negligent-- it'd be like letting carny barkers run the stock market. (Oh, wait. They do.)) It'd be great if most people could be given a far greater understanding of what modern medicine is. But this is one of those cases where an "elite" is more or less required.